OPINION: MPs must get the backpacker tax sorted

All over Australia this summer farmers, fruit growers and other primary producers have been facing a big problem.

The produce they have battled to grow against all manner of flood, fire, disease and pestilence – and in some cases all of the above - may be left to rot.

The primary reason will be the lack of available labour to get the fruit and vegetables picked or harvested through the short and intense window where many target their crops to maximise on the seasonal conditions for best produce, and meet a market be it local, national or international.

A last minute deal in Federal Parliament on Monday may see the tax pass and become law, but its consequences may still be felt in many regional areas. It looks likely to be at a higher rate than the 10.5 per cent amendment proposed by Senator Jacqui Lambie.

The aim of the original tax seemed to be to deal with the perception that visitors to this country on travel visas were grifting off the nation and putting nothing back.

For a government desperate to be repairing the budget, they seemed like an easy target.

Bring all these energetic young people to Australia and rip thousands of dollars of tax out of them while they fill roles which the majority of the locals won’t or can’t.

Seems foolproof. Find a few more groups like this and the budget will be back in the black, lickety-split.

That is until the prospective travellers start looking to other places such as across the Tasman, where they will get a better deal.

The brains trust within Treasury hadn't quite factored in the voluntary part of these people coming to Australia. Unlike many of the visitors coming here a couple of hundred years ago, these ones do have a choice.

According to the industry and travel groups dealing regularly with backpackers coming to Australia, they are voting with their passports and heading elsewhere.

The early impact has been witnessed on the Coast in Devonport with Tasman Backpackers managing director Ben Bovill already noticing a considerable drop in inquiries from working backpackers, which underpin his operation and the agri-business he deals with.

That is no doubt being replicated in many places around the nation.

It’s what happens when something like this is introduced in isolation.

It’s not that they should be getting a totally free ride, and it’s fair enough to pay something.

But for a backpacker coming to Australia for a combination of travel and some work, just about every dollar they will earn gets recycled buying things like food and fuel while they travel around.

Another bonus is that they’re getting out into regional areas where that spending is extremely welcome, as well a flexible workforce that doesn’t otherwise exist.

One wag suggested our MPs could do something practical to help.

From Thursday night there will be 226 MPs heading into a long summer’s break. They should be heading out into the paddocks, orchards and fields and getting their hands dirty.

Maybe that would give them a better appreciation of what its like for the backpackers, and also why a lot of the locals don’t or can’t manage it when it’s either too physically taxing or not consistent enough in hours and days to take on.

Surely it’s bloodyminded to be incapable of finding a reasonable compromise and getting on with it?